A Tale Of Two Cheetahs
by GlassDragonflyOfDeath
Summary: Aww I love this pairing! Cassidy finds out about the death of Jana, but is sure he's seen her somewhere before-alive. He's right, she's still out there, but he needs to find her first. CassidyXJana please R&R coz it makes me feel special :))
1. Chapter 1

It was hot, as it always is. Why do I have to live in Africa? My plan for today: eat, sleep on someone's bed then get chucked off when they realise I'm there, eat, sleep in a tree, eat a bit more, maybe drink, maybe not. As I prowled over the dusty yard in front of Leopard's Den with the sun's rays beating above me, I was sure I could hear footsteps behind me, as if I was being followed. I knew who it was without turning around.

"Go away Peeters," I growled at the vulture behind me.

"Why?" He came from behind me and walked beside me instead, "you okay?"

"I'm just hot...and tired. Please leave me alone Peeters," I smiled, "I have claws."

"Oh I'm so scared," he laughed sarcastically, "I better start running."

"Yeah you better, I could catch you even when you were flying."

"Says the cheetah with three legs."

"You want a bet?"

Peeters smiled, "okay. I'll run to that tree over there," he pointed to the tree in the distance-the one I usually sleep in during the day, "if you can catch me before I get there, you win."

I took some time looking at the tree, planning where would be best to attack and how. It seemed-if I concentrated-somewhat possible.

"Fine," I agreed, "as long as you fly low."

Peeters nodded, "okay, you ready?"

"Three," I pushed my back leg back into the dirt and lay my front legs in front of me, as if about to pounce.

"Two," Peeters lowered his head and lifted his wings

"One."

"Go!"

I lifted my feet from the ground and ran, reaching top speed in less than three seconds. For now, I would concentrate on running instead of the vulture just in front of me. Every time my paws hit the ground, I could feel my lungs getting drier and heavier. Slowly, I started to lose my breath, and I knew I would have to make my move before I got too tired. As I carried on running, I never took my eyes off Peeters, lowering my head and shoulders as he got tired and flew slower than he had started. When I was almost directly underneath him, I leapt. My claws dug into his feathers and he screeched a piercing shriek that hurt my ears.

"Cassidy!" He screamed, "Cassidy stop!"

I released my grip in shock, falling to the ground with a thud. As I looked on to Peeters in front of me, his black feathers were stained red with blood. He dug his beak into the ground and pulled himself up, stumbling a few times.

"Peeters I'm so sorry."

"Cassidy why didn't you stop?"

Stop?

"What to you mean?"

"We passed the tree ages ago, I just didn't stop flying because I was afraid I would fall back and hit you in the face."

I looked behind me. He was right. We were about as far away from the tree as we had been back at Leopard's Den. I must've been concentrating on running so much that I hadn't noticed the tree go past me. I lifted Peeters onto my back and headed back.


	2. Chapter 2

It rained for the first time in ten months that night, and I made the most of it. I know I'm a cat and all that, but it's not every day I get to experience muddy fur and cold feet. All the other humans were either in the kitchen or in their rooms, Rosie was the only one with me in the living room. She tried to persuade me to stay inside with food and a really fluffy blanket (she knew what she was doing, that blanket looked really _really_ comfy), but I had other ideas. It was the first time Peeters had stayed inside the house, never mind on the sofa. He was starting to be treated less like a friendly, but still wild animal and more like a household pet. He was asleep in the corner of the sofa, his injured wing bandaged up and held in place with a custom-made sling.

After about forty minutes of pawing relentlessly at the door, Rosie finally gave in, she sighed and opened the door for me. As soon as it was open enough for me to get past, I ran outside and into the pouring rain.

At first, the thunder made me jump, but I soon got used to it. The yard that was dry and sandy before had become a muddy lake, and there were no other animals across the reserve, not that I knew of anyway, I wasn't really paying attention. I spent the best part of an hour leaping and running through the puddles when the storm seemed to get heavier, and the lightning came closer. I liked the rain, but I wasn't a big fan of electricity, or being electrocuted, so I ran to the door and pawed frantically at it. But no-one answered. Great. Now I'd have to lie out here until someone bothered to build up the effort to open it. The porch was dry and sheltered from the rain, but I would've preferred being indoors in this weather. I found a comfortable spot next to the wall and underneath the window-which was too high up for me to see through. So, with nothing to do, I curled up and tried to go to sleep. I closed my eyes tight and tried my best but nothing worked, maybe the rain had woken up this morning, realised its life was sad and lonely so decided to be really loud to make everyone else's life sad and lonely. I don't know, but what I did know was that I hated rain, I hated the experience of muddy fur and cold feet and I was looking forward to the next, bone-dry ten months.

I looked over at the tree in the distance, the same one Peeters had challenged me to race to earlier. It swayed gently in the rain, which blurred its outline and made it seem somewhat smaller than it looked when it wasn't raining. Something caught my eye-moving beside the tree trunk. Was it an animal? It looked like it. I didn't think any other animals came out in the rain-they were all hiding where ever was dry. If there's one thing I know about lightning, except that it's loud and hurts when it hits you, it's that it tends to hit the tallest thing it could find, such as mountains, skyscrapers, and trees. If that tree was hit by lightning, the animal underneath it would get hit by the falling branches or even the lightning itself. I debated whether or not to go and tell them-I could get hit by the lightning myself, and it's their own fault if they get hit anyway, but I would feel so guilty if anything happened, and I had nothing better to do, so I went out in the pouring rain and ran to the tree. As I got closer, I could see the animal was in fact another cheetah, and they lying beside the tree trunk-either dead or asleep. I clumsily skidded on the waterlogged ground to stop beside the cheetah, which gave her a fright and woke her up.

"I didn't think other animals liked the rain," I smiled, panting with exhaustion at the same time.

She looked up at me with a blank expression, "I don't. What do you think I'm under this tree for?"

"Well I wouldn't if I were you,"

"Why not?"

Right on cue, a deafening clap of thunder accompanied a bright light that blasted both me and the other cheetah forward. I looked back at the tree, it was nearly all black and split in half, the two main branches hanging over the trunk and close to breaking off.

"That's why."

She looked at me for a while, then noticed I was looking back at her, so avoided eye contact, "what's your name?"

"Cassidy."

She smiled, "Jana."

I froze. Surely she couldn't be _the_ Jana. The Jana that was shot when Leopards Den was going to be destroyed?

The Jana that was supposed to be dead.


	3. Chapter 3

"Wait...you're...Jana?"

"Don't look so surprised," she laughed.

"I thought you were-"

"Dead? Yeah, about that, I kind of faked it."

"How could you fake being shot in the head?!"

"Good acting...and some red paint."

We carried on walking away from the lightning-stricken tree and back towards Leopard's Den. The Storm seemed to be clearing now, the thunder had stopped but the rain didn't. I looked at Jana, who was staring at the house, looking almost upset.

"You okay?" I asked her.

"It's been a long time since I've been here," she sighed, "do you think they'll still recognise me?"

"Of course they will," I was still amazed that this was Jana. Liv had said so much about her, how she missed her and how she wished she were still alive.

We reached the side of the house, and peered around the corner to the front entrance.

"Okay, I'm going to go and check the front. You stay here," I walked over to the door, trying my best to act normal. The only person out side was Dup, sitting on the steps downing a bottle of beer as usual. The coast was as clear as it ever was going to be, so a gestured around the corner to Jana who ran to meet me. Carefully walking past Dup as silently as we could, we made it into the hall. But just as I was about to direct Jana into the kitchen, she walked the opposite way, frantically looking around.

"Where's Liv?" She asked.

"I don't know I think she's-" but before I could continue, Jana was halfway down the hall, she looked like she was lost, wandering around like a ghost through the house, turning her head from side to side to examine the walls.

"It's a lot different since I was last here," she said quietly, "but then again they had it all re-done, didn't they?"

"How do you know that?" I asked inquisitively.

"I..." She turned to look at me, she caught my eye in doing so. I didn't know what to do, did I look away? Did I speak? Did I move closer to her? She broke her gaze when she turned back to the wall, "...I've been hanging around the edges of the reserve," she shut her eyes and lowered her head, as if she was about to cry, "I sneaked around in the middle of the night, as if I wasn't welcome."

"But of course you're welcome!" I didn't get it, why would she think she wasn't allowed in her own home?

"I didn't think they would remember me...I mean, it's been so long..."

"Of course they'll remember you!" I moved closer to her, half expecting her to move away, but instead she stood where she was, watching me.

"They won't wan't me here..."

"Of course they will!"

She laughed, "you like saying that, don't you?"

"Saying what?"

"'Of course'-you've said it about ten times in the last five minutes!"

I paused, trying to recall what I'd just said, "three, actually."

She looked at me, smiling, then playfully nudged me on the shoulder, "does it really matter?"

Just as we were about to go upstairs on our search for humans, one of them came running down the stairs-not in a hurry, just in the way some humans do. It was Caroline. She looked at me first, then at Jana, who she gave a funny look.

"Cassidy, you've been told about bringing your...girlfriends into the house!"

Jana gave me a I-told-you-so look.

"Wait," Caroline said as Jana turned to leave, "are you...? No...you can't be..."

Jana turned around hopefully.

"...Jana?"


End file.
